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Lobster Claws "When you live on the most remote inhabited Irish island south of the mainland, especially when you earn your meager living from the sea, you need to pay attention not only to where the cows are grazing but to what the lobsters are doing when you haul pots." Commentator Chuck Kruger. "Because the lobsters (with the no-nonsense way they have of forecasting the weather) could save your life. Let's say like some small-time farmer-fishermen around Cape Clear Island, you've a string of 25 lobster pots. You bait them with slices of mackerel which have been schooling, or what the British call boiling: that is, when a school of mackerel chasing sprat near the surface of the sea suddenly encounter some predator, such as a blue shark, they change direction all at once, thousands of 'em leaping out of the water at the same moment. Well, you bait your pots with these easily-caught mackerel, shoot the pots at dusk, and haul them in at first light. As you lift each pot into your punt, on a good morning one in five having a lobster inside, you suddenly spot your first lobster and he with his claws gripping the pot hard. Well, that's the only sign you need to know you'd best skedaddle from the sea, as heavy weather's on the way. That lobster's a living lesson: He's gripping anything handy, locals say, so that intensified sea movement doesn't sweep him away from his prized territory. Take heed of the lobster gripping the pot. Word of his trick's saved many a yacht." |